Daily Rehearsal: Playwright Unit participants announced

October 12, 2011

1. Look into Fear City with Chris Jones; "Halloween will be the last day for a remarkable new walk-though attraction that goes far, far beyond the typical theme-park, chain-saw grottoes or the suburban warehouses full of fake fog and cliched gore." My interest is piqued! "You may have seen scarier haunted houses than Fear City — although, on several occasions, I jumped halfway to the ceiling — but I very much doubt you seen a more artful or fully realized Halloween milieu." Open at 7 (at night of course).

2. The Goodman has announced their second annual, season-long Playwrights' Unit participants; they include Philip Dawkins, Nambi E. Kelley, Elaine Romero and Martin Zimmerman. At least one name shouldn't sound too unfamiliar; Dawkins you'll know from his show The Homosexuals. The point of the residency is to develop new plays, which they'll read in the spring. Get writing, y'all.

3. The 13 Clocks opens at Lifeline Theatre this weekend. It's a fairytale, but not one I've heard before: "Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn’t go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke, and his niece, the Princess Saralinda...." "Agressive"?

4. Steppenwolf’s Clybourne Park is now playing through November 13. New tickets for November 8 through the new, real end, go on sale this Friday at 11 am.

5. Elgin Community College Arts Center is putting on "Cinematic Titanic", a "feature-length LIVE movie" from those that brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks is at 7:30 pm, and Blood of the Vampires at 10 pm. I don't know which is better, so use your best judgment, or read the following blurbs. The former is "chock-full of angry villagers, grave robbers and (obviously) skinny dippers", and the latter has "blood-soaked action for the guys, tender romance for the ladies and unleashed demonic rage for the frightened child within us all." Wear your costume, they'll have the popcorn.